Wednesday, April 20, 2011 -

I'm back with another review of a film I've been wanting to catch on DVD for quite sometime now; Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast starring Ben Kingsley, Ray Winstone and Ian Mcshane.

I have been hearing rave reviews about Ben Kingsley Oscar nominated performance as Don Logan for quite some time now, so I finally decided to get the DVD from HMV after the submission date for my Korean marketing proposal. Well here's my 2 cents:

Sexy Beast

Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast is one of the British Gangster flicks that is an enjoyable enough movie on its own but taken to another level by the tour de force performance of Ben Kingsley as Don Logan.

The plot of the film is fairly straightforward; Ray Winstone plays Gal Dove, an ex-convict and safecracker who’s retired with his ex-pornstar wife, DeeDee and their two friends, Aitch and Jackie to a gorgeous villa in Spain. Meanwhile, Don Logan sets out to recruit a team for a bank heist planned by gang boss, Teddy Bass and he wants Gal along for the job. Gal is happy with his life and doesn’t want to come out of retirement and Don won’t take no for an answer, wacky hi-jinks ensue.

Ben Kingsley’s Don Logan is the absolute antithesis of his role as Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi Biopic. A psychotic sociopath, with a hair trigger temper and Napoléon complex, who seeks to achieve his objectives through intimidation, violence and sheer force of will. It’s terrifying yet hilarious seeing Don Logan brow-beating Ray Winstone’s Gal Dove into submission.

Here’s an excerpt of one of my favorite scenes in the movie:

Don Logan: What you think this is the wheel of fortune? You think you can make your dough and f*ck off? Leave the table? Thanks Don, see you Don, off to sunny Spain now Don, f*ck off Don. Lying in your pool like a fat blob laughing at me, you think I'm gonna have that? You really think I'm gonna have that, ya ponce. All right, I'll make it easy for you. God knows you're f*cking trying. Are you gonna do the job? It's not a difficult question, are you gonna do the job, yes or no?

Gal Dove: No.
Don Logan: Yes!
Gal Dove: No.
Don Logan: Yes!
Gal Dove: No!
Don Logan: Fat c*nt!
Gal Dove: No, No, No…
Don Logan: YES! YES! YES!

And another one of Don Logan’s monologues; pretending he got molested when he’s detained after getting thrown off a plane for smoking:

Don Logan: Yeah, that's what I said. There's me putting my bag up in the cupboard next thing ya know, I feel hands on me. Someone's touched me, touched my front... my front bottom. I can't believe it, I've gone all cold. I look around, he standing there isn't he? That steward with the guilty look on his face. I was shocked, I didn't know what to say. I had to sit down, I was that perturbed. Then his mate, the other one who was giving us all lessons on what we do if we land in the sea. How to wear your life jacket etc; He starts off, he starts looking at me all funny... suggestive. Now I don't know if they're wanting me for a twosome or something, I don't know how they work it. But I'll tell you what, it scared me. I was shaking like a leaf, so without thinking I lit up a cigarette to calm me nerves. I was trembling, I was very emotional and that when all the rest of it happened. It's very regrettable. Now, I don't want to kick up a fuss, right, press charges... contact the British embassy. I'd rather not pursue those channels, that's not my style. I'm not that sort of a bloke. I don't want to lose the man his job. Man's got to eat. And I'm sure he's not representative of all you Spanish people. But I would appreciate it if you had a word with him, let him know he's been rumbled. The one with the ginger hair.

Classic stuff.

Ray Winstone also turns in a very nuanced and subtle performance as the mellow Gal Dove that nicely complements the wild, manic energy that Kingsley brings to the film. Sure he’s an ex-con, but he’s a nice enough bloke who’s trying to put it all behind him and in walks this force of nature that turns his idyllic life upside down. Ian Mcshane’s performance as Teddy Bass was also a revelation, he played the role with greater restraint than Kingsley’s explosive Don Logan but exuded this quiet, palpable sense of menace that was in some ways even scarier. I’ll keep a look out for his performance as Blackbeard in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The only element that I found jarring and not particularly effective was the inclusion of this mutated human-sized Jack Rabbit that seems to be a figment of Dove’s imagination. What the rabbit is a metaphor for, only the director knows I guess.

All in all, the film was a solid British Gangster movie elevated by the outstanding supporting cast and what I felt was the finest character performance given by Ben Kingsley.



And that's all folks...for my next post, I'll be reviewing a film nobody would ever expect me to...a Romantic comedy...>GASP!!<....plus the next post will also include my throoughly researched thesis about the eternal debate on whether chicks go for the bad boy/nice guy ...it'll be a lengthier and juicier post than normal.....Stay tuned!!

10:39 PM